


Sand, Sun, and the Prettiest Seashells

by Onlymostydead



Series: Jason Todd Month [1]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Light Angst, canon typical violence mention, drug mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 21:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20181235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onlymostydead/pseuds/Onlymostydead
Summary: When Bruce says that he and Jason are going to the beach this Saturday, there are a lot of different things that could mean. Training excersize? Media stunt?Finally just a day off with him?





	Sand, Sun, and the Prettiest Seashells

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm late for July, but this is July prompt 1, Beach!

The word 'beach' in most people's minds brought up pictures of crisp blue waters, white sands and clear skies. They would probably see, like, the hot sun blazing down on them, giving them a golden tan or whatever. They would be smelling the slightly coconut scented sunscreen, and feeling the slightly itchy beach towel they laid down beneath them as they chilled out, just listening to the surf as it broke against the land and the rocks. Seagulls flying up above would be crying, but not too loud, the other people at the beach wouldn't be super obnoxious...  
Or, maybe they tasted fruit cocktails, with bright colors and silly decorative umbrellas by the curly straws, felt the flip flops dangling off their feet as they lounged in chairs, sunglasses punched elegantly on their noses.  
The beach was places like Cabo, probably, or Florida, or California, or Hawaii.

But to Jason? None of those things came to mind. Not until Bruce said that they were going down to the beach this Saturday. Then he was thinking about every possibility, mind racing with questions he didn't want to ask because Bruce was busy.  
What would a billionaire even do on a beach?

Because when Jason thought of a beach, when he wasn't thinking about other people, it was always when he went. He always thought of the scummy Gotham pier, and the people he scammed there. He thought about the docks, all coated in filth and mud at the bottom, some combination sewage and pollution and Clayface, even, some people said. He though of the things, floating in the green-grey water. He thought of the fact that, if you stood with your feet in the surf, you wouldn't be able to see your toes even an inch down. The water was just that murky.

His mother always scolded him for touching the water, when they went together. She told him it was full of needles and drugs and dead bodies, and said he was better off just staying away.

...she was probably right.  
It had some good memories, though. The Gotham City Pier, once of the main tourist attractions... When it wasn't overrun by a terrorist clown or two. There were rides, cotton candy, dumb games that were rigged so that you couldn't actually win no matter how good you were at them-

His dad always won, though, when he was little. He wouldn't figure out until later it was because he could just say who he worked for and get what he wanted, but it made Jason feel like his dad was a superhero, as a kid. He would have to be, to win a game that rigged.

But the pier was associated with good memories, just... Also the ones of bodies washing up onshore. And all of the cases he had gone with Bruce on down there recently.  
So... Which was it going to be?

Was it just going to be a case as Robin that he phrased weird, or... Was Bruce going to have to act like an actual human and go to a beach? Or was it just media publicity? Or could it be normal?

No, probably not.

And then again, none of the rich people he was around ever acted like actual people. They all had their own rules and their own guides and it was all its own certain way when they were talking to each other - everything was just so weird with them. It honestly wouldn't surprise him if Bruce's casually mentioned 'beach day' involved a private flight, an air mattress, and like, a personal servant to bring him virgin piña colada's, or something.

They kept saying he would get used to it, but... After close to a year of living at Wayne Manor, living the lush life of Bruce Wayne's ward, Jason still definitely wasn't any more used to any of it.

It was all just so... Weird. He almost wished it could be more normal, on one hand, so it would stop being so forced and stuffy, and so... Rich.

How much money was in everything he did? He didn't know, and if he ever found out it would probably terrify him. And maybe that was normal for Bruce, but he didn't need all of that. He came from a family where they survived on coupons, a part time job, food stamps, stolen money, and stolen goods. It was enough to just have, well... Enough. It was enough to not go hungry. It was enough to get to be Robin. It was enough to have a roof over his head and four walls to come home to.

It was enough to not worry about having money for a beach day once in a while. That was enough. 

He didn't need all of this fancy stuff, and... It kept him from actually hanging out with Bruce. It was annoying, because he wanted to do better, and he wanted to trust him, and be around him, and it always felt like he was being held at arms length by stupid rules and regulations that he didn't know.

Did Bruce want to keep him a little separate? Was that why the turns of conversation were always so odd in billionaire circles, or why he always had to make small talk with the guy over there? Because he was being avoided?

Jason didn't know, but he supposed it would just have to be enough to have this beach day, whether that meant being close with Bruce at all, or not. At the end of this, maybe something would come out of it, and... Maybe not.  
***

Saturday rolled around, and Jason still hadn't been given any more information about what to expect. It had started to drive him a bit... Batty (haha, pun - too bad Dick wasn't here for that) but at least the day was here. Alfred woke him up 'bright and early in the morning,' ushered him out of bed, and got him into the bathroom while he would put together a bag of the things Jason would need for the day.  
It made him feel more like a little kid, to always have an adult packing a bag for him, or things like that, but it lessened the feeling to remember that he still did the same for Bruce. And Bruce was way, way older than him. Like, probably twenty years older, or something. So it was probably fine still.   
After he was all ready and dressed, and he had thanked Alfred, Jason quickly got dressed and bounded down the stairs to the breakfast table.

Bruce, early as ever, nodded to him from behind his morning paper. "Good morning, Jason."

"Morning, Boss. Gonna finally tell me anything else?"

He didn't miss the little upward twitch of his lip; so this withholding information thing was amusing, huh? "You'll find out soon enough."

Jason rolled his eyes, sliding into a chair and dishing himself some pancakes from the center of the table. Odd, if Alfred already woke Bruce up, and he was already up, then...

"I hope you won't mind if I invited a couple of extras?" Bruce asked with a chuckle, his eyebrow raising.

"Wait... Who? Who!?" Jason stood up, looking around, before-

Dick grabbed him from behind, squeezing him in a hug and lifting him from the ground. "I don't know, who is it Jay?"

"Hey, put me down-!"

Bruce, barely containing his laughter, held the newspaper higher to cover his face.

"Hey! Don't ignore this while he manhandles me!" Jason shrieked as Dick began to tickle him, taking steps backward so his flailing feet would avoid the breakfast table. "Bruce!"

"Good to see you too, Jaybird." Dick laughed, settling down a little bit, but not quite putting him down. "But, if you want me to put you down so bad..."

His eyes went wide. "Dick. Dick, no-!"

"Barbara, catch!"

And the whole thing started all over again. Needless to say, it was a good long while before any of them actually got any breakfast.

***

After breakfast - and it did take a while - they headed down to the garage, climbed into one of the few of Bruce's many cars that would seat five comfortably, and headed out, Alfred driving. No weird other chauffeurs, no baggage additional to their small bags packed into the trunk of the car, just with them, those things, and the stuff they had with them, plus a couple of extra towels.

Jason was... Definitely relieved. Especially since he had searched his bag, and there was no extra change of normal clothes, no passport, and nothing else to implicate leaving the country, or even the state.

This could be a normal trip to the beach.

Did billionaires do those, though?

Did normal people do those?

Sure, he had seen lots of movies where the family went to some nice, clean, clear beach for the day and hung out, but did people actually do that? 

Were they actually going to do that?

"So." Jason started, trying to be as casual as possible. "Where're we headed?"

Barbara raised an eyebrow, turning to look at Bruce. "You didn't even tell him where we were going?"

Bruce blinked, as if the thought never occurred to him. "I said we were going to the beach."

Barbara and Dick shared a knowing look.

"We're going to a beach on the New Jersey coast, about a half an hour away." He further explained, glancing over at them again.

Jason nodded. "Anything... Training-y? Should I be on the look out for anythin'?"

Dick elbowed Bruce. "Jeez, B, you've never given him a day off?"

"I've-"

He chuckled. "I know, I know. I'm joking. Just try to enjoy yourself, okay, kid?"

"Sounds like a plan."

***

And at the end of the day, when the sun was setting and they were all drenched and coated in sand and salt water and Jason's hands were full of too many pretty seashells that he wouldn't put back... It was nice. Just having the day off, not worrying about Robin, not worrying about the media, and getting to just relax. It wasn't like he was never given a day off, but...

It was getting to splash Bruce when he wasn't looking, and starting a water war that waged a good half an hour. 

Or swimming out to the rocks that were further out into the water with Barbara, and diving to the bottom of the ocean until Alfred called saying they were too far out.

Just lying out on their towels with Dick, being sure he was probably getting a weird tan line from something the media would pick up on eventually but not giving a damn right now.

Because they could just sit out in the sand and eat their lunches and talk like... Like a family. Like they were a family.

And Jason could imagine what it would be like, to have his family there.

He could imagine racing his dad out into the surf, splashing him in the water, both ending up drenched with salt water in their eyes, but laughing in spite of it.

His mom wouldn't want part of that; she would sit on the shore, taking pictures, and he would collect the prettiest seashells, just for her.

The prettiest seashells...

As they drove back, Jason arranged the ones he had found in his lap. She would have liked the oyster shell that reflected rainbow colors on the underside; ordinary, and yet beautiful. And the clamshell that looked purple. And all the pretty little white ones...

When he got back to his room, he put those ones in special, hidden places so they could be safe. But it was then he realized...

The word 'beach' brought up many pictures in his mind, too. The pictures of perfect, billionaire beaches that they vacation on, with servants and tables and torches and everything just so. Those report type locations. He hated that. He didn't want to think about that, and never wanted to visit a beach like those.

It also brought up images of the Gotham pier, with its lonely people and run down attractions, its shipping and handling, its nightlife, it's day crowd of tourists - all kinds of people coming through at different times, not all of them leaving.

But it also had a picture of family. Whether that was his biological family together at the pier, or a dream of them at some beach, or Bruce, Alfred, Barbara, and Dick all together spending time at the beach... That was family to him. 

And he couldn't wait for their next trip.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr at Supertinybats or Supertinywords!
> 
> Requests are open!
> 
> Comments are love <3


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